The Giants have fired both head coach Ben McAdoo and general manager Jerry Reese, the men at the top of a 2-10 season and the architects of the botched quarterback transition that took place last week.
The unprecedented housecleaning moves were made by Giants ownership on Monday after the team arrived home from a 24-17 loss in Oakland on Sunday, the first game in 14 years in which Eli Manning was not the starting quarterback.
Defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo will be the interim head coach and assistant GM Kevin Abrams will be the interim GM.
Giants co-owners John Mara and Steve Tisch discussed the future of the franchise after Sunday's loss and again on Monday before making the decision.
"We agreed that wholesale changes needed to be made to this organization to get us back to the team we expect to be and we also agreed that it was pointless to wait any longer to make these changes," Mara said.
McAdoo finishes his time with the Giants with a 13-16 record after Sunday's loss at Oakland. Spagnuolo is the only other member of the Giants staff with head coaching experience (Rams, 2009-12) and was a candidate for the job when McAdoo was hired to replace Tom Coughlin in 2016.
The immediate impetus of the firing seems to stem from McAdoo's mishandling of the quarterback transition. Manning's streak of 210 consecutive starts ended on Sunday when he was replaced by Geno Smith. ESPN, however, reported on Monday afternoon that Manning will be back as the starter for this week's game against the Cowboys.
Mara said Monday that the Manning situation was not the "final straw" for McAdoo.
"Really had no effect whatsoever. 2-10 is 2-10," Mara said. "Obviously the public reaction to that was not pleasant but that really didn't have any effect on our decision."
The change had negligible impact to the on-field product but created an inescapable swirl of off-the-field criticism. Co-owners John Mara and Steve Tisch said in November that they planned to assess McAdoo's job at the end of the season, but last week Mara said there were "no guarantees" McAdoo would last until then.
Reese was elevated to Giants general manager in 2006 after Ernie Accorsi retired. Reese was a personnel executive who was George Young's last front-office hire in 1997, and helped build two Super Bowl winning teams.
Before the 2016 season, Reese was put on the spot by co-owner John Mara to get his roster in order, and a $200-million free-agent spending spree that landed Janoris Jenkins, Olivier Vernon and Damon Harrison and kept Jason Pierre-Paul from leaving reaped early rewards.
McAdoo is the first in-season change for the Giants at head coach since Bill Arnsparger was replaced with John McVay after seven games in the 1976 season, Arnsparger's third on the job. Those Giants also started 2-10.
McAdoo is the first Giants head coach since Joseph Alexander in 1926 to last less than two full seasons (Benny Friedman was named co-head coach with Steve Owen for the final two games of the 1930 season; the following year Owen held the title himself and did so for another 21 seasons after that). The only Giants coach in the Super Bowl era to not make it to a third season was Ray Handley, who was hired in 1991 and fired after the 1992 season.
While not every Giants coach brought his team to the postseason, McAdoo is the first coach in team history to appear in just one postseason game. That speaks to how quickly his tenure has crumbled.
McAdoo unabashedly stated his goal for the Giants, which was to win another Super Bowl. He made space on the wall in the team's meeting room next to photos of the past championship teams and routinely reminded the players and media of his desire to "put a fifth trophy in the case."
Things started well for McAdoo and he seemed to be on that path. He was introduced as the 17th head coach of the Giants on Jan. 14, 2016, and had one of the most successful first seasons in franchise history. He became only the third first-year coach of the Giants to win his first two games (Alexander 1926, Dan Reeves 1993). His 11-5 record tied Reeves (1993) for most wins by a first-year Giants coach. By making the playoffs in 2016, he not only ended a four-year drought but became the fourth Giants coach to reach the postseason in his first campaign (Allie Sherman in 1961, Reeves in 1993 and Jim Fassel in 1997). The Giants lost to the Packers, 38-13, in a wild-card game in Green Bay.
His second season had a far different tenor. The Giants, expected by many to contend for a title, lost their first five games in 2017, including a loss to the Chargers in which star receivers Odell Beckham Jr. and Brandon Marshall were injured and gone for the season.
McAdoo gave up his play-calling duties to offensive coordinator Mike Sullivan in Week 6 and the Giants won in Denver, but they lost their next three to post their worst nine-game start to a season since they were 1-8 in 1980. The 51-17 home loss to the Rams felt like rock bottom, but the Giants were able to plumb deeper with a 31-21 loss to the previously winless 49ers the following week.
They beat the Chiefs at MetLife Stadium on Nov. 19 with a rousing overtime effort, but four days later they fell to the Redskins on Thanksgiving Night with another listless offensive performance.
McAdoo joined the Giants as offensive coordinator in 2014, delivering the first significant change to Tom Coughlin's offensive structure with his West Coast philosophies. He'd previously spent eight years as an assistant under Mike McCarthy with the Packers, the first six as tight ends coach and the final two as quarterbacks coach. He was on the staff that won Super Bowl XLV with the Packers over the Steelers.
Manning at first seemed to thrive under the new system. In his first two years in the system the quarterback averaged 30 TD passes, 14.7 interceptions and a 62.9 completion percentage. He threw a career-high 35 TD passes in 2015. The Giants offense averaged 26.4 points per game in 2014 and 2015 and was ranked in the top 10 in the NFL both seasons.
When the Giants parted ways with two-time Super Bowl champion coach Tom Coughlin following the 2015 season, McAdoo was the first candidate interviewed as a replacement by the Giants. When the Eagles, also looking for a new coach, made overtures toward McAdoo, the Giants offered him the job.
The offense never clicked for the Giants under McAdoo the head coach the way it did when he was offensive coordinator. In 2016, they scored 110 fewer points than the previous year, averaged 19.4 points per game, and never scored 30 or more in any game. That streak of games without scoring at least 30 points continued into 2017 and reached 29 (including the playoff game) by Week 13. They were held to less than 20 points in 15 of those games.
McAdoo tried to imprint his motto _ "Sound, smart and tough, committed to poise and discipline" _ on the team, but his tenure was also pocked with off-field incidents. Domestic violence charges against kicker Josh Brown were overlooked in 2016 before the Giants ultimately released him. Beckham, Victor Cruz and other receivers spent their day off between the end of the regular season and the wild card game partying in Miami and cruising on a yacht. Beckham punched a hole in the wall outside the visiting locker room following the playoff loss to the Packers.
In 2017, McAdoo suspended two of his top cornerbacks, Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie and Janoris Jenkins, for one week each for separately violating team rules. In Week 10, an ESPN report cited two Giants players anonymously saying McAdoo had lost the team and players were quitting on him.
While many veteran players were adamant that was not the case and said so on the record, the Giants continued to lose and the perception of a dysfunctional team with no leadership from the head coach's office became difficult to shake and impossible for the owners to ignore.
